Viral Links

      I created a video concerning how our technology changes the way we dream. After posting the video I attempted to circulate it around social media. I put up posts on Twitter, Facebook, and Vine. Not surprisingly I didn't get much feedback due to my lack of prior social media experience. I don't usually post things on social media, and needed to create a Twitter account, therefore I don't have a substantial loyal following.      

Twitter: 
     

This was the only tweet that I posted which got a response. This tweet got one favorite, but it was someone in the class with me, so I'm not sure if that counts as a crowning achievement. I chose this image to pair with the video link, because it happened to have text which coincided with one of the points I discussed in my video.

This is one of the memes I made, which had relevance to the topic of my video while also relatable since it is commonly reproduced image. I really enjoyed making memes, because they added humor to my topic.

 This is another meme I created, but i tried to use hash tags to gain social traction. The only thing I gained was a creepy account responding to the #dream with "I dream about you", I promptly blocked that account.

This is the infographic that I made to depict the path in which we take as video games seep into our subconscious and form our dreams. I wanted to keep my infographic simple, because I have read many articles on how misleading infographics can be. 

Vine:

I made this vine to show people how easy it is to find and watch the video, without actually showing the 

video. 

I tried my hand at stop motion in this video, and attempted to show the computer going to bed. This hints to the topic of my video, and is entertaining. With my vines I wanted to be creative and draw people to my video. 

Facebook:

This is the only Facebook post I made that got a reaction. I tried to hook viewers in with a one liner, and I received one like.... from my sister.

In this Facebook post I tried to use a snapshot from my video to catch the viewers attention. I didn't put text, because I wanted to leave a level of mystery or intrigue, but there might have been too much of that.

My Take:

      All and all I believe that attempting to circulate my video was a very interesting experience. It taught my that social media fame is difficult to achieve, and if only your family follows you, only your family can appreciate your posts.

How To Become an Online Superstar

     In this day and age, the most appealing way to get your opinion broadcast to the world is through social media. People have the ability to sit at home an simply type words onto computer screen, yet impact millions of lives. Being heard and having your thoughts respected is a thing that everyone strives for, so how can we achieve just that?

The Do's and Dont's Of Social Media:

DO:

- Reserve time for social media endeavors- no one succeeds without hard work. Trying to make it on social media is no different. 

-Be Consistent- keep the content of your posts similar in topic, that will help you build a loyal following.

-Know your specific type of media- All social media sites are different, and it is important to understand the logistics of your target site.

-Be humorous- humor is easy to relate to, and will help you gain followers.

-Use visual aids- visual stimuli catches a viewers attention and draws them to your posts.

Don't:

-Don't isolate certain audiences- try to appeal to a mass amount of viewers.  

-Don't only focus on one event- though your ideals and topics should be consistent, don't bore followers with monotonous material. 

-Don't try to get a rise out of followers- Say things you believe, but don't post anything with the intention of waging a war.

-Don't use social media to promote products- use it to promote ideas, which may or may not be coupled with a product.

-Don't take breaks- social media has to be a constant event, and prolonged absences from your site can turn off your followers and cause them so go elsewhere. 

    The most important thing to do on social media is to be yourself. Though everyone kinda wants to become famous, it is not worth losing yourself in the process. The more you, you are on social media, the better feedback you are likely to get. 

Rhetorical Rationale

      I created a video to inform a wide range our people how technology affects our dreams. My video is primarily visual, causing the viewer to interact heavily with the video because they have to read the text on the screen. Its tone is informative and serious, because my topic didn't provide much room for humor and random humor doesn't blend well with the rest of the video. I used short video clips with text, pictures, and text slides to convey my information. I overlaid my video with the song “Sweet Dreams” by Beyoncé.  

Video Clips: The first two video sections are overlaid with text to engage the viewer, in order to keep them from being bored by blank screens with text. The last video clip actually portrays a phenomenon that occurs with color media and our dreams, in order to give my video validity because people believe what they see and don’t necessarily read everything. At first I planned on using green screen technology, but I decided not to because I knew it would most likely look cheesy and take effect away from the more mellow informative tone of my video.

Text: The text is the way I conveyed my information. I attempted to keep my text short, so people would feel like reading it was feasible. My audience is a group of educated people about 15 and up that are curious on my topic. Therefore I used text in order to get the most information across. I also cited most of the information I had in my video on the actual screen, in order to give the video’s content credibility. I also quoted credible sources.

Music: I chose the song “Sweet Dreams” by Beyoncé because my video is about dreams and it has a melody that doesn't lull causing the viewer to become uninterested. It has changing ‘speeds and fits well with the where the video changes. The song is also by a popular artist which allows the video to subconsciously relate to the viewer. 

  

Pictures: The pictures that I use in my video are transitional pieces that still keep the viewers’ attention. They also convey a visual to pair with my text. They show that my information is seen in other parts of society that are being shown in the pictures.

The Reality of Live Tweeting

      So many people try to make it big on social media. They are glued to their devices, constantly trying to post that one thing that magically puts them on the map. Live tweeting is one of the ways people are trying to be put on the map. 

       I attended the 2015 Digital Assembly in order to learn about video games and our society. I live tweeted at this event in an attempt to interact with other people at this event, it did not go very well.

My Experience:

      I was at the assembly for an hour and listened to a lecture by Anastasia Salter and live tweeted consistently for that time. I found the event extremely interesting and really enjoyed learning about the connection between video game creation and

stereotypical gender discrimination. I was amazed to learn that there the majority of games out today were made by men. I had never thought about the people behind the games that I see. 

I tweeted 14 times in the hour and got very little reaction through my tweets, even though the event had an universal hash tag. I received one retweet, but that was from my Professor, so I don't know if that counts. There were a few people tweeting with me, and I noticed some people tweeting pictures, so I decided that I would try to tweet a picture as well. 

The Obstacles I Ran Into: 

    I had a lot of difficulty during this live tweeting. It was extremely hard for me to pay attention to the speaker while still tweeting. I would find myself typing and then once I pressed send,  I really wanted to tweet quotes, from my speaker, but I couldn't ever get her words verbatim. There were a few other people tweeting at the Digital Assembly and I attempted to interact with them through retweeting and asking questions, but I never got anything back from that. 

   One of the scariest moments of my life was when the 20% battery sign came up and the lecture was only half way through. I had to turn my brightness down to conserve my battery, and just silently pray for it to last.

     Overall I believe that this was a good experience, but I am no optimist and don't think I will be able to become twitter famous. I think an event that would be best suited for Live Tweeting is an event that is already receiving a large amount of media attention.  

Annotated Bibliography

Video Description

         My video topic is the affects technology has on our dreams. I wanted to talk about our brains and then while researching happened upon a fact that the color of our media affects the color in which we dreamed. I then decided that I wanted to talk about dreams. I want my video to be informative but also intriguing. That is why I focused on dreams, because then I can present the information without bombarding viewers with facts. I will try to use actors and possibly animation paired with text and music to make my video. I don't like listening to my own voice, so I will stray from voice overs, but I believe text in a way is actually more engaging because it forces the viewer to interact with the video. I will present information concerning technologies effect on the color, content, and interactions of our dreams. I think I will start the video with multiple ways that technology affects our brains (ie. attentions spans) but then bring it into the specific areas of our dreams. In the video I plan to show the transformation of a video game into fragments of our sub consciousness and then into our dreams. The video will not be complicated, because I don’t want to confuse the viewer, but I would like to make people laugh with my video. I find the way that technology affects our dreams very interesting, because it isn't necessarily a bad or good thing, just a byproduct of our technological era.  

Bibliography

Drummond, Katie. "Video games change the way you dream." 21 January 2014. The Verge. Online Article. 23 February 2015.

-This article is about the affects video games have on our dreams. The way we react to things and what is in our dreams can be shaped by our interaction to video games. Dreaming and video games put our mind into alternate realities which cause our minds to react in dreams as we do in video games. This relates to my topic, because I am analyzing technologies effect on our dreaming. This differs from my other sources, because this source focuses on Video games and how they change the subject of our dreams.

"The major parallel between gaming and dreaming is that, in both instances, you're in an alternate reality, whether a biological construct or a technological one,"

"that so-called "hardcore" gamers were more likely than their peers to experience lucid dreams"

"If you look at how this might affect, say, military personnel, then it could have significant benefits," says Gackenbach, who has done one study on such a population in the context of wartime trauma. "Maybe games can actually remove the ‘need' for nightmares and the threatening feelings that come with them."

Dundee, University of. "PubMed.gov." 8 October 2008. NCBI. Document . 23 February 2015.

-This source is of a study that looked at the correlation between black and white media and the color in which we dream. The study found a correlation between the people dreaming in black and white and the fact that they were exposed to black and white media. This source will be helpful because it analyzes another way in which technology affects our dreams. It differs from other sources because it focuses on the color of our dreams.

"Two age groups, with different media experience, were compared on questionnaire and diary measures of dream colour."

"People who had access to black and white media before colour media experienced more greyscale dreams than people with no such exposure"

"There were inter-group differences in the recall quality of colour and black and white dreams that point to the possibility that true greyscale dreams occur only in people with black and white media experience."

Hiscott, Rebecca. "8 Ways Tech Has Completely Rewired Our Brains." 14 March 2014. Mashable. Online Article. 23 February 2015.

-This is just a bulleted list of 8 ways technology has changed our brains. Only one bullet is actually about dreams, but I think the other facts will allow for a good lead into for my video. I can start broad then zero in on dreams specifically. This differs from my other sources because this is not restricted to simply technologies affect on dreams.

"Technology has altered human physiology. It makes us think differently, feel differently, even dream differently"

"Neuroscientists suspect the glowing lights emitted by laptop, tablet and smartphone screens mess with your body's internal light cues and sleep-inducing hormones."

"Social media and the Internet have also been shown to shorten our attention spans. Individuals immersed in digital media find it difficult to read books for long periods of time, and often skim articles online rather than reading every word."

III, Earl F. Lam. "Lifestyle." 29 March 2013. StarTribune. Online Article. 23 February 2015.

-This article is about how things in our life are transferred into our dreams. This has a direct correlation to my topic because increased technology can lead to a difference in what are brain transfers into dreams. This is different from my other sources because it focuses on what can be in our dreams, such as memories. 

"They first float into our consciousness on the night after the event itself, which might reflect the initial recording of the memory. Then, they reappear five to seven days later, which may be a sign of consolidation."

"Our dreams are more than a collection of characters and objects, though. They come in many different styles — from trivial and disordered to intense visions — and our emotional undercurrents seem to be a guiding force."

"The purpose of dreams remains an unsolved mystery, but it’s now clear that our use of technology can change our dreamscape."

Okada, Hitoshi, Kazuo Matsuoka and Takao Hatakeyama. "APAPsycNet." 2012. American Psychological Association. Journal Article. 23 February 2015.

-This is another study that was conducted to see the correlation between colored media and the color of our dreams. It found similar results to the previous study, and will strengthen my argument for the affect colored media has on the color or lack of color in our dreams.

"Approximately 80% of subjects younger than 30 years of age experienced color in their dreams, but the percentage decreased with age and fell to approximately 20% by the age of 60."

"The frequency of dreaming in color increased from 1993 to 2009 only for respondents in their 20s, 30s, and 40s"

"We speculate that color TV may play a role in the generational difference observed"

Wren, Kathleen. "Science Mysteries ." 2013. NBCNews. Online Article. 23 February 2015.

-This article considers our brain sleeping in general by studying the dreams of people with amnesia. It is very informative, and necessary because in order to understand how technology affects our dreams, we must first understand our dreams. This source differs from the others because it is a broader look at our dreams in general.

“Dreams let you consolidate and integrate your experiences, without conflict with other input from real life,” Stickgold said. “Dreaming is like saying, ‘I’m going home, disconnecting the phone, nobody talk to me. I have to do work.’"

"“implicit memories.” These are memories that scientists can measure even when individuals don’t know that they have them."

"Stickgold believes that dreams serve a purpose for the brain, allowing it to make necessary emotional connections among new pieces of information."

Video Links

-This video about where good ideas come from is a good model for my video, because of the visual way the information is presented. I really would like to incorporate animations or some form of stop motion to my video. The video is obviously much more advanced, skill wise, than something I can produce, but I feel as though I can use the broader techniques in my video.

-John Green's video is a really good example of an engaging script. John Green is speaking the entire time, but manages to be interesting the entire video. He also has the ability to be funny with his material. I believe that humor is a really good way to convey non negative information, such as my topic. I would like to incorporate humorous things into my animations of script.

-This video about creativity also has animations, that are more simple and probably more do able for me. What I really took from this video is how engaging it is without voice over. Since I have already mentioned that I will probably not be using voice over, I think this is a good model for only have text, animations, and music in a video. I also think that the way the information is being told, is similar to the way I would like to provide my information.

-This video of new innovations in 2014 is a video that creation wise is simple, but has ability to look legitimate. I believe it is a good model for my video because I have little knowledge of film making and the actual making of this video seems to be the most daunting task. Knowing that I can make a good and rhetorical sound video, without fancy film work, allows me to focus more on the information I am presenting.

Are Videos a Compelling and Persuasive Medium?:

Analysis of END7: How to Shock Celebrity

What is this videos tone? Is it appropriate?:

      The tone of this video is disturbing; the makers of the video want to make people uncomfortable while watching the awful symptoms of these diseases. This will persuade viewers to contribute to aid in the irradiation of the seven diseases mentioned. This tactic is extremely appropriate and in no way a simple ploy to trick consumers into helping. These diseases are awful and through the video's raw footage; it is able to compel people through feelings of sympathy, guilt, and horror. It is an extremely appropriate and effective form of communication for this topic.

How does this video complete its task?

     Music: The video uses a song that is very somber yet ominous, which keeps the viewer engaged, and on the edge of their seats. The song also has inflections of African style music which hints toward the areas in which these diseases heavily infect. 

      Text: The text first introduces the celebrity reactions to a video that the viewer has yet to see. Text is not heavily used which is acceptable because the footage speaks for itself. Text then introduces the video that the celebrities were watching. Directly following a small clip of the illness, the name of the disease is shown. This is clever because you react first to the video and then when the name appears you brain immediately associates it with the clip.

    Celebrities: The use of celebrities in this video gives it credibility. In our society, we look up to celebrities as role models or aspirations (To be completely honest I paid closer attention when Eddie Redmayne flashed on the screen).  To recognize a face that you have seen in magazines, reacting similarly to how you reacted, further drives home the thought that the issue in question is important. 

How can we incorporate this into our own work?

      Obviously, most of us don't have access to celebrity reactions, but we can still make effectively persuasive videos without that. Simply music alone can make a world of a difference. Use songs that make you feel the way you want your video to make others feel. Use text to show what people don't need to say, text engages the viewer and forces them to pay attention or else they might miss out. The raw and non staged footage is also extremely persuasive, because it transformers an abstract problem into a visual fact. Videos are evidence, and are a persuasive and remarkable medium for relaying information on a broad scale. 

*To learn more about the video go the the END7 website